Discussion: What book(s) got you into reading?

So I was wasting time on Reddit this past weekend, and I came across a thread that asked the following question: “What is the book that got you into reading?” I thought it would be interesting to ask the same question here, to see what the book/blogging community has to say.

When I was young, I liked it when my mother read me stories, but I didn’t like to read on my own. I think a big part of it was that there was a disconnect between what I was being offered to read at school, and the kind of stories that captivated me. That is, until I discovered Nancy Drew and The Boxcar Children. I devoured both series’, going to the library as frequently as I possibly could and not stopping until I’d read every single copy that they had, multiple times. And after that, I was rarely seen without a book (or five).

Then when I went to college, I stopped reading for fun. I had more of a social life than I was used to, and balancing work and class on top of that didn’t leave a lot of time for fiction. I did make sure to try to schedule at least one literature class per semester, but when you know there’s a test coming later on, it really isn’t the same relaxing experience. One day during my senior year, I came home from class and found a copy of Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey sitting on the coffee table, and I started reading it. I was hooked, and ended up reading the next six books in the series as well.

What about you? What books made you love reading, and/or got you out of reading slumps?

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10 thoughts on “Discussion: What book(s) got you into reading?”

First big book I ever read was Shogun by James Clavell, a historical fiction about the Warring States period of Japan and a fictional battle of Sekighara. It was the story of a British Sailor whose ship crashes and he and his crewed are marooned in Japan during a time when the Japanese had little to no knowledge of the English. Through his abilities to learn and his willingness to share shipbuilding knowledge and tactics with muskets he slowly becomes an advisor to one of the Head Daiymo’s in the conflict, hoping he can use his influence to get home.

The Book is one of Clavell’s first and most famous but it is a bit large so if it’s something you wanna read, bear in mind it’s around a 1000 pages. All the same I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a fantastic book.

This is a tough answer because I’m not really sure. I always liked reading and I tended to read what was available. I’ve always used the libraries even when I was young using and helping in the school library. I remember my gran had a copy of a Peter Rabbit book that I absolutely loved and I so wish I could find a copy of that book now! I also had a book of stories that I was fascinated in. It had a whole bunch of unusual stories. One was about a young girl on a day out at the beach who ate something that made her shrink (very Alice I know) and she ended up inside the sand castle that she’d built as the seas was coming in. I was totally fascinated by it. Another was a child who drew some stick characters that came to life! My other youngest reads were The Borrowers, The Wizard of Oz and a few of Enid Blyton’s.
Lynn 😀

I used to love going to the library. I don’t go to my local public library to check out books as often now because I have so many books on my TBR pile, but I still go for events like Nerf gun battles in the stacks. 😛

I’ve never read The Wizard of Oz, oddly enough. I’ve seen the movie many times though. Is it true to the book, or completely different?

I have always had a book in front of me. But if I think back to childhood favorites I read (or had read to me) over and over again, they were “When We Were Young” and “Now We Are Six” by A.A. Milne, Madeline (my father can still recite it by heart), and Ferdinand the Bull. But books that really hooked me into reading were by C.S. Lewis, Sir Arthur Ransome, Tolkien, and American books like “Little House on the Prairie” and even fairy tales. I guess I’ve been hooked since I could read and look at the pictures. And I hooked my brother who reads equally voraciously.

My mother used to read the Little House books out loud to my sisters and I before bed. I think that’s one of the things that got me into historical fiction, because they made me so curious about how people lived in the past. And CS Lewis was always a particular favorite. I didn’t realize how allegorical they were until I was much older.

I too read Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children. Along with sooo many other books. Our library was very small, didn’t take me long to go thru the books there and then started requesting books from other libraries. I can’t remember a time of not reading. I’m sure there were times over the years when I didn’t read as much but then I discovered audio books and then e-books came along. So, I am never without a book! If I ever get into a weird slump, I go back to my favorite genre – mystery/thrillers by a favorite author!

I actually don’t have a book that made me love reading! I just started off loving it, and only have memories of reading as a child. I’ve always been obsessed 😀

But I recently had a reading slump last year, and it went for a few months. Every book I was reading was two stars, and even if they were three stars, they were nothing special. And then I read a book in a genre I don’t usually read, and it managed to pull me out of it. It was These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly – an historical mystery/thriller novel. I was so thankful, because I HATED being in my reading slump!